There are Christians my husband calls the name it, claim it and frame it bunch.
And it’s not just in Christian circles… You may have come across non-Christians who religiously believe in what The Secret teaches…
If you’re not familiar with either, or even similar philosophies – here’s the crux of it: “Believe you’ll get what you want strongly enough and you’ll get it.” What nonsense!
And I can say that because I once believed in that whole claim it and it’s yours drivel… I also bought The Secret and tried it out. Power to you if it worked for you – for the rest of us we may need to follow a different teaching.
Here’s a summary:
If you want money – you’ll have to learn how to get it.
If you want success – you’ll have to work your way to it.
If you want fantastic relationships, you’ll have to work at them.
If you want a wonderful partner you’ll have to put yourself out there.
If you want to lose weight you’ll have to stop scoffing so much food down and embark on some kind of weight loss program.
If you want a better job or business you’ll have to go through the paces…
The list goes on.
So that’s the point of this post – you can stop reading here if you like. If you want more detail you’re most welcome to continue reading.
About the name it claim it and frame it bunch- I’m a happy clappy too and I believe in miracles – I believe that there are some things that happen purely on faith – but it is the wisdom of a loving God that has made is so that most things require a journey to acquire. And for the most part success and money are two things that don’t come just by wanting them bad enough.
I’m currently reading Robert Kiyosaki’s CASHFLOW Quadrant (which I highly recommend). It proves that money and success cannot come by chance. And they surely don’t come by “just believing.”
Money and success have certain paths – you have to learn those paths to acquire them.
There are things that rich people do that make them rich. They are things successful people do that make them successful. They do not sit around wishing and hoping, visualising and merely expecting – they do.
You want to be successful, learn how. You want money, learn how to get.
I’ve come across so many people who think “somehow” money will just come to them.
They either don’t learn the principles of getting money or hear about the principles and for some bizarre reason think these principles don’t apply to them.
I’ve seen people get into debt – knowing they cannot meet the debt demand – and then pray that “somehow” their debt will be paid off. Really?
Is it not common sense that R20 can never pay off R100! And yet somehow there are some people who will know they only have R20 but get into R100 debt – or even more! In their mind prayer will pay off what they can’t afford. Good luck on that one.
Often I hear rich people say the more you give the more you get. It’s a simple principle that’s hard to put into practice when you feel you don’t have enough. But it will only be enough if you step out and start acting on the principle.
I remember visiting a relative once. They lived in a very poor area. On the day I visited they had no running water in the house so they had two young boys draw water from them.
The boys were no older than twelve and all day they worked drawing water. Now for most people the thought of children so young working is ghastly – unfortunately the world is such that in some places poverty is so rife that this does happen.
I remember my heart feeling so ill inside with how horrible it was for people to be so poor. But the two kids didn’t seem to mind- this was a way of life for them. After their work I gave them each some money to spoil themselves. My relatives were LIVID with me. How, they asked, could I give those kids money when they needed it! I was shocked.
“Those kids were working all day-“ I tried to explain. “I just thought it might be nice for them to get something nice for themselves-”
But my relatives weren’t listening. Each came with a list of needs they had and how the money I’d spent on the two kids would have served them better. This kind of thinking saddened me.
I was so disappointed. But worse still I left my relatives’ home knowing they would never leave the realms of poverty. They would always be poor because they could not practice the simple principle of giving.
Becoming successful is a learned path. Being rich is a learned path.
Yesterday I saw a young boy barely in his teens begging on the side of the road. At some point he learned that this was how one acquired money. Will he ever be rich?
How about the millions of low-income earners around the world who feel it makes absolute sense that they should, at the very least, be compensated as much as their more learned counterparts. Will they ever be rich? How about if they instead chose to find out to learn the paths of the rich than fight for something that would never happen?
One of my friends works for a man who has no formal education and yet has a thriving business that employs more than 25 people. Would he have ever become rich by just strongly believing it would happen without working at it? Would he ever have acquired his wealth thinking someone owed it to him? What if he’d waited for that someone to “show up” to give him the wealth?
Of all the successful people I know I admire this man the most. When he started his business he was poor, the wrong colour (at the time), with no education, he could hardly string an English sentence together and yet there he is now – literally making millions a year. He embodies what I’m saying here.
It all starts with thinking right.
After years of being on a list to receive a government house my assistant at home decided she was going to build herself a house. Despite her minimum wage income she went on an aggressive saving campaign. After years of sound financial management she finally managed to build herself a three bedroom home. I’ve only known her for a few months but she inspires me and reminds me how little can be made much with the right mind-set. Last week she and I started talking about how she can start investing for a more sound financial future for her and her kids.
Instead of loathing the rich for having money – I think it wiser to ask them how they came to that state. Coming to that state requires a change in thinking patterns. To change the thinking requires the acquisition of valuable “rich-making” information and knowledge.
And here’s the thing – there are some very successful people who are so passionate about sharing this valuable information they literally give it away for free. Robert Kiyosaki does it in on RichDad.com. And there are many other resources like it.
And even if you have to buy books or attend seminars to find out about how the rich operate I think whatever they charge is a pittance compared to the knowledge you acquire from these resources.
The only success you’ll frame is the one you journey for. All the naming and claiming in the world is only a waste of time.